logs!, willow, logs!

I have set up more jumps in the woods. Willow loves to jump over them. She goes over then back without a second command, but will stop in a down and then jump back if you catch her first. She really seems to enjoy this activity and will come from a fair distance if you go near one of the known jumps and shout logs! or similar. If I can stop her just bouncing over every object in the area in a random order she could be a fantastic agility dog. I saw some videos on the web the other day that showed a dog doing an obstacle then stopping right on the end of it (they must put thier paws on the end part to score). They were like statues until the handler called them on. Will Willow ever be like this? I doubt it but maybe.

Another thing I do is hide behind trees, they don't have to be big enough to hide me, but Willow find this a bit distressing and barks at me to follow her and stop messing about. If I persist she comes to me, which I think means she accepts my behaviour, and has given up thinking she can influence it. We have a good old game from time to time with me running between trees in the opposite direction to where she wants me to go!

Running - mixed results

Willow can run with me and can heel beautifully most of the time (off lead). I can make her down and go and wait and heel. The only thing is if you loose concentration too long she can dissapear off for minutes. This worries me because there are sheep in some of the fields near the woods I go in. I have tacken to making her heel with me near the sheep field, and go on after. She likes the game. When she does dissappear no end of shouting gets her back. Maybe she is not too far away in a down (her universal reaction to unknown shouted commands). I still need better recall from her, even when she is having fun. Unfortunately when she is in the woods she cannot see the point of eating, so although in classes she is a foodie, other times there is no reaction. She will come if you call and threaten to throw a stick. I am trying to teach her the touch command where in order to get something she has to come and put her nose to the palm of my hand. Hopefully if she does this at home she will still do it in the woods despite the non-interest in food.

More classes

We went on holiday for a while after christmas, and Willw missed 4 or 5 weeks of classes. In the first class back it was clear that she had regressed a bit, not in her tricks etc but in her attitude. Last night (the second class back) was much better, she was attentive and enjoying herself. She could do some distance work, and her recall is getting stronger.

More Progress

Willow can sit, down, find, come here (in most contexts but not all). She can do sit and down on hand signals. She still misinterprets sit as down when in the woods, and despite getting "up sit" right at times is very nervous of doing it either because she doesn't want to, or because she thinks the more we say things the more we want her to submit. She can "up sit" really nicely in training classes. She has lost a little of her "oh if I must" swagger about coming when called in class, but it takes enormous encouragement in the woods.
In the house she can fetch reasonably well, and we can enforce the right behavious if her can't be bother to get it, or goes back to the wrong place, or hides or whatever. she still hides every stick she gets in the woods, although Maggie tells me that this morning she got willow to return the same stick several times. Adam is so keen to do the right thing that he picked up a stick the other day to carry about when maggie was trying to get willow to "find" her stick.
The growling has reduced alot these last two weeks. Willow get sent away, or the lead put on and a few tricks performed if she growls. Maggie drys her outside because the enclosed utility room seemed to trigger more extreme reactions. We are both very observant of the growling and teeth showing. Generally growling is not dangerous, but leads to teeth showing which is not far from teeth showing with treatening noises which is one step from gnashing. We now do not tolerate any growling, we distract in the ways mentioned above if it happens.

More Gnashing

Willow let herself down again the other day. She has been reasonably behaved since and we don't really know what to do. It's hard to trust her totally really.